Tag Archives: Sale

We have had ( and are having ) some busy weekends as summer comes to and end and life picks back up again – why does summer always seem like vacation even though we have the same routine? Kevin’s summer hours ended, I head back to work full-time, school is back in session which means morning commutes are more stressful and time to stock up the pantry for the cold weather. OK – maybe it’s not going to get THAT cold THAT soon, but I’m preparing.

Without realizing it, I tend to stock up the freezer for the cold months and by the time the first peak of warm weather shows, it’s time to eat fresh food! This week I did a huge grocery haul and planned meals for the next two weeks due to holidays and wedding travel. Here’s a look at what $99 of groceries looks like. I also did some meal prepping as usual.

I talked about stocking up on sale items for future use ( Dinner for $10 ) – this will save you time and money. Time, because you already have the food on hand ( maybe even keep a running inventory of your freezer or pantry ) and Money because you spend half the price or more on something you would normally buy anyway!

Trying to get everything shoved into one frame was tricky, sorry for the bad quality.

I have a method to my madness (usually) which, in this case, means I DO NOT buy certain items unless they heavily on sale and/or I have a coupon. Shrimp is one of these items. Shrimp is SO expensive and I feel like it’s all I want to eat sometimes. I will only buy shrimp if it is $6/lb or less ( preferably $5 – $5.50/lb ) and second is mayonnaise. Yes, it’s an unhealthy condiment but one I CANNOT live without. I only purchase mayo when it is on sale AND I have a coupon. Naan is a pantry staple in our house. When I saw them on sale this week I had to grab 2 more packages – they can easily be frozen, but we eat it at least once a week so I know they won’t go to waste.

After all my shopping is done, it’s time to prep some items for the week. Some weeks contain more prep than others and this was one of those weeks. To be honest, I am so OK with that because it makes week nights smooth as butter!

I make my menu, prepare a shopping list being as specific as possible ( list number of zucchini or bananas you need so it’s not a guessing game when you’re in the store ) and then plan what I will prep ahead of time. Some easy items to prep are yogurt, hummus & veggies and overnight oats.

This week, prep took a little longer – I shredded the zucchini and carrots for muffins ( adapted from here ) using my food processor, then cooked/pureed the eggplant in the food processor and baked the “meat”balls as well. We mixed and baked the zucchini muffins, peeled/mashed/mixed bananas and cooked pancakes, cooked a batch of eggs, chopped celery and onion & made tuna fish, and steamed five heads of broccoli.

It was a lot of cutting, chopping, cleaning, washing and cooling – I got a little run down and luckily Kevin finished things up. Come Monday, all we have to do is boil water for pasta and heat sauce and dinner is ready! Crockpot chicken on Tuesday takes no time at all and just like that, two days worth of meals are almost completely done for you!

I mentioned these jeans a few weeks ago but they are my favorite brand and favorite white jean right now AND they’re on super sale with additional discount (code: WKND)…grab it with the black top and you will have heads turning!

I am not going to be one of those crazy couponers that post 24/7 about how they got a ton of items for next to nothing. What I WILL do is just share a little glimpse of how I got all of these items (over $90 value) for only $20.

Diapers – these are always one of the easiest items to get at a great discounted price, usually at a drugstore. I have never purchased diapers at full price because there’s absolutely no need to. They are usually $12.99 full price – every couple of weeks they go on sale for $8.99, for some people that’s good enough. This week I purchased them for $8.99 each ($26.97 for 3), I had three manufacturer coupons for $5.00 ($21.97), PLUS, between two apps I mentioned here, I saved an additional $4.50! I got away with three packages of diapers for $17.47 (about 14 cents per diaper depending on the size). This is a great time to stock up on the next size of diapers or prepare for another baby for the future (or buy them for a friend)!

Tissues – when did these stupid pieces of cotton get to be SO expensive? I find it difficult to find a good sale on these babes. They were on sale 2/$3 – I then used $0.25 coupon, each box was $1.40.

Toilet Paper – Another item, along with Paper Towels, that I just hate handing money over for! TP and PT were on sale for $5.99 each, $0.20 manufacturers coupon for a total of $5.29 (88 cents per roll).

Desitin – Can you ever have enough? Especially when Daycare somehow seems to go through a tube every other week! These were Buy One, get One 50% off – $8.49 each – $12.74 for 2, $1.50 manufacturers coupon off 2, $10.73 for 2.

Shampoo + Conditioner – You can get S+C for rock bottom prices if you shop the sales, and use every coupon you can find! L’oreal was $4.99 each, with $4 Manufacturers coupon, $5.98/2 plus $4 ExtraCare Bucks for buying 2 which made these $0.99 each.

Colgate – Toothpaste is another little guy you can usually get for free and sometimes MAKE money off of. This was $3.49, $2 manufacturers coupon and $2.50 coupon from the kiosk put $1.01 back in my pocket AND I got $2.50 ExtraCare Bucks for next time.

Razor – This was neither needed or wanted; however, Gillette sent me a coupon to try the razor or FREE (a 12.99 value).

Visine – I needed this; although I did have $1.00 manufacturers coupon.

Aside from the above, I had a store coupon for 10% off the entire order ($2.70 was applied), $5 off $15 coupon which was sent to my email. I also went shopping last week for some deals and had $28 in Extracare Bucks from that order, bringing my grand total before tax to $22.29.